Jargon Watch: Top-less, Yoshoku

One of the things that used to most aggrevate me up about working at Yahoo! was the way that laptops and smartphones (the company was a holdout for Palm Treos running Good Technology email) were used at meetings.

There was no eye-contact you had the sense that the participants in meetings were in the room only in terms of their physical presence whilst their attention was elsewhere. This partly resulted in a culture of what I felt was too many meetings as the ones we had didn’t feel that productive. Web 2.0 wunderkid Adaptive Path have pioneered what they (lap)top-less meetings, kind of self explanatory as a way of getting around this time suck. According to Jeremy Zawodny top-less meetings are finally making inside Yahoo! as well. Thanks to San Jose Mercury News who republished When it’s hard to stay focused, try going ‘topless’ to meetings by Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times (March 25, 2008).

Asian fusion is a big restaurant trend in London, Wagamama has built a successful business on converting Japanese ramen and curry dishes for western palates. In Japan, converting western food for Japanese palates has been going on since the late 19th century when the country was opened up to the outside world. Yoshoku is ‘western fusion food’ where spaghetti gets cooked and then stir-fried Nihon-style. The International Herald Tribune has a great article that delves into yoshoku culture and cuisine, together with its signature restaurants like Shiseido Parlor (which guide books mistakenly list as a French restaurant), more here: Spaghetti stir-fry and hambagoo: Japan looks West by Norimitsu Onishi (March 26, 2008).